1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to communication networks, and more specifically, to the monitoring of data transmitted over such networks and the production of output to assist prosody analysis.
2. Description of Related Art
Communication networks typically include a number of interconnected communication devices. Connections among the devices in some communication networks are accomplished through physical wires or optical links. Such networks may be referred to as “wired” networks. Connections among the devices in other communication networks are accomplished through radio, infrared, or other wireless links. Such networks may be referred to as “wireless” networks.
Communication messages (e.g., data packets) sent across communication networks may be intercepted. Intercepted messages may yield valuable information, and the process of intercepting and analyzing messages may be referred to as “traffic analysis.” In general, traffic analysis seeks to understand something about the message traffic by observing the traffic and analyzing that traffic to extract information. To guard against unwanted traffic analysis, messages are typically encrypted. For example, both the content and the destination of a message could be obscured through encryption.
Prosody is a term used to describe the “supra-segmental” features of speech, such as inflection, word stress, sentence rhythm, and pacing. Experiments with infant children and adult members of bilingual families have shown that the two languages can be differentiated by rhythm of the words and sentence patterns, even when the actual words are disguised by electronic resynthesis.
In some situations, it may be desirable to monitor encrypted speech traffic flow over communication networks and extract information that would be useful for prosody analysis. Accordingly, there is a need to monitor traffic flow even when identifying information associated with the messages is encrypted and to extract useful information for prosody analysis.